Bariatric Surgery Cuts Obesity-Related Cancer Incidence

THURSDAY, June 9, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Among adults with obesity, bariatric surgery is associated with a significantly lower incidence of obesity-associated cancer and cancer-related mortality versus no surgery, according to a study published online June 3 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Ali Aminian, M.D., from the Cleveland Clinic, and colleagues investigated whether bariatric surgery is associated with lower cancer risk and mortality in patients with obesity. The analysis included 30,318 matched patients with obesity, including 5,053 patients who underwent bariatric surgery.

The researchers found that the mean between-group difference in body weight at 10 years was 24.8 kg (19.2 percent greater weight loss in the bariatric surgery group). During follow-up, 96 patients in the bariatric surgery group and 780 patients in the nonsurgical group were diagnosed with one of 13 obesity-associated cancers (cumulative incidence at 10 years was 2.9 percent in the bariatric surgery group and 4.9 percent in the nonsurgical control group). In the bariatric surgery group, there were 21 cases of cancer-related mortality versus 205 cases in the nonsurgical control group, with a cumulative incidence of cancer-related mortality at 10 years of 0.8 and 1.4 percent, respectively.

“In the current study and in other studies, substantial weight loss was required to observe a meaningful reduction in the cancer risk in a dose-dependent response,” the authors write.

Several authors disclosed financial ties to the medical device and technology industries.

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